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The second, the third, the fourth and the fifth were on another river,
called the Dubglas, which is in the region of Linnuis.
The River Dubglas is modern Douglas, meaning "black water". If the
Saxons translated this directly, it might be any one of the many Rivers
Blackwater around the country today.
The 2nd century geographer, Ptolemy, recorded the associated name of
Lindum at the Roman Fort of Drumquhassle in the Lennox area of Scotland.
The River Douglas still runs into the nearby Loch Lomond, on the borders
of Strathclyde. Could King Arthuis of the Pennines have fought the Scots
or the Strathclyde Britons here?
The better known Roman Lindum, however, is now the city of Lincoln.
The surrounding area would be Linnuis: it is still called Lindsey today.
Unfortunately, there is no longer a River Blackwater or the like here,
but one of the waterways flowing off the muddy peat moors could easily
have been originally described as such. Geoffrey of Monmouth indicates
this as the correct identification. His chronicle relates how immediately
Arthur came to the throne, he swore to rid Britain of the Saxon menace
and so set out to attack the Anglian stronghold at York. Hearing of this,
the Deiran leader, Colgrin, gathered together an alliance of Saxons, Scots
and Picts and marched south to meet him. They clashed on the River Douglas.
Geoffrey also describes an ensuing Battle of Lincoln, probably one
of the successive battles on the same river, thus identifying it as the
Witham. Some theorists have argued that Linnuis simply means "Lake Region"
and therefore other rivers, such as the Douglas near Wigan in Lancashire
have been suggested. Southerly alternatives, more suited to the traditional
Arthur, include an imaginative identification with the Battle of Natanleag,
now Netley in Hampshire; and, more convincingly, the area around Ilchester
in Somerset, the Roman Lindinis, which may have become corrupted to Linnuis.
The River Divelish and Devil's Brook, both deriving from Dubglas, flow
nearby. Perhaps one of them demarked the border of Dumnonia.
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